


Just Some Plaster and Some Paint (makes a very strong wall)

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Depression, Episode: The Day of the Doctor, F/M, Fake Character Death, Gen, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, starting a new job always sucks, the Doctor will find literally any excuse to beat himself up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 05:48:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Rose ended up trapped in Pete's world after the battle of Canary Wharf. But she's there all alone, because Mickey, Jackie, Pete, and those few Torchwood agents are all on the other side with the Doctor, where Rose desperately wishes she could be. Meanwhile, Bad Wolf is there to help the Doctor change his past, and to give him the future that he wants more than anything.





	Just Some Plaster and Some Paint (makes a very strong wall)

She realized in that moment that she might be truly alone for the rest of her life, and Rose let out a choked sob. She sank down to the floor, pressing her hands flat against the glaringly bright white wall in front of her. Everyone she loved was trapped on the other side. Or maybe she was the one trapped on this side. It didn’t really matter either way. What mattered was that she was alone, and she was never going to see any of them again. 

It was all her fault, and she deserved this pain and misery, but the others didn’t. A small group of Torchwood agents from the other universe, Mickey, Pete, Jackie… the Doctor. Well, technically the agents and Pete were actually from this universe. They’d been displaced just as much as Rose had, but at least they had each other. Rose had no one. Not in this universe, anyways. 

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there and cried, shedding tears for her own loss, as well as the pain that the others had to be going through. Rose had promised the Doctor forever, but she hadn’t been able to give that to him. She’d just left him behind, just like he’d always been afraid of her doing. And she’d left behind her mum, and her best friend, and someone who could have potentially been her father, or at the very least a friend. 

Eventually, though, she had to force herself to stand up and walk away. She knew that she’d have nightmares about that stupid wall for a very long time. Even if it wasn’t technically what was keeping her separated from everyone else, it felt like the wall was the single barrier between her and her world. 

Rose looked around, and saw that the room she was in looked just like the one she’d left behind, only there were no people in it. She reached up to rub away some tears, and ended up with mascara smudged across the back of her hand. Rose had to close her eyes and take a deep breath to stop herself from just screaming out as loud as possible. She was pretty sure that if she gave in to that urge, she’d never be able to stop.

Rose dragged herself towards the elevator, and took it down to the first floor so that she could leave the building. She could feel the confused eyes on her as she went, but nobody actually tried to stop her from going. Rose didn’t care why. She wasn’t sure that she’d even care if they had tried to stop her.

Once she was outside, she could see the zeppelins up in the sky, and it struck her once again that not only was she completely and utterly alone, but she was alone on an alien planet. Sure, it had its similarities, and they’d been fun to explore for a single day when she knew that it was just another place to help out before moving on, but now it felt like the most foreign place in the world. And there was no version of her that had ever existed here, which meant that she’d need to figure out how to get papers and an ID, without having any kind of money, or anything else to start herself off with. She was way out of her league here.

There were a lot more homeless shelters scattered throughout the city than in Rose’s London, and she found out that many of them had opened with the past couple of years, in response to the deaths and destruction caused by the Cybermen invasion. At least it meant that this world was open to the idea of aliens in a way that her own had never been (despite having been publically invaded so many times over).

The shelters were all so crowded already, though, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to stay in one indefinitely anyways. She looked down at herself, and saw that there was a big gash on her leg from where a passing Dalek had mashed into her, but she hadn’t even noticed the pain. She patted down her pockets, and had to resist the urge to cry again when she realized that she had absolutely nothing of use on her. 

Rose thought she should find a hospital to get her leg checked out, but she had no money, no insurance, and no identity, so that didn’t seem like the best idea. She had no clue what the best idea actually was, though. It was easy to feel clever and important when traveling with the Doctor, but that was always with her being in situations she would soon be leaving, which meant that in a lot of ways, she was used to living consequence free. But that was no longer the case. 

Even though it had been a while since the last time she’d been in this world, Rose could still remember at least one familiar place. She wasn’t sure if there was any point, since surely there would be no one there, but she began to head towards Pete’s mansion. She didn’t have any money on her at all, which meant that she would have to walk the entire way. After a while, she became very much aware of the pain in her leg, and wondered if she’d even be able to make it. Wondered if it mattered if she did. 

No! She was Rose Marion Tyler, and she could not just give up now. She’d find a way to get back to the Doctor, or he’d find a way to get back to her, but they couldn’t be reunited if Rose died on the side of the road in a place where no one knew her name. 

As she walked, Rose got quite lost in her thoughts, so she didn’t really that a car had pulled up next to her until she heard someone call out. “Hey!” She turned, and saw an unfamiliar face sitting in the driver’s seat. “You’re from a parallel universe, right? Saw your face on the security tapes, and realized that you’d probably need a bit of help.”

Rose frowned. Should she really trust Torchwood when they were responsible for her being stuck here in the first place? But that had been the other Torchwood. Maybe this one was different. Better. And even if it wasn’t, what choice did she have? Rose wasn’t stupid enough to think that she could actually make it here on her own. So she only hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Maybe just a bit.” Then she went around to get into the passenger side of the car, and wondered how she was ever supposed to live a happy life here, knowing that she was alone.

,,,

The Doctor could still feel the sting of Jackie’s palm against his cheek as he stumbled back into the TARDIS, and he couldn’t blame her in the slightest for it. He probably would have let her slap him a few more times, because he absolutely deserved it, but Pete and Mickey had pulled her away, and then they’d left, along with the other three agents that had gotten stuck on this side. 

The Doctor stayed and stared at that blank white wall. It represented the clear division between him and Rose. He kept seeing her fall, over and over, in his mind, arms stretched out, desperate for him to save her. She’d fallen right into the void, where no human could possibly survive. After all of his promises, both to Jackie and to Rose herself, the Doctor had failed. He hadn’t been able to keep her safe. He hadn’t been able to do anything at all.

The only reason he’d been able to drag himself back to the TARDIS was because staring at the blank white wall made him feel sick to his stomach, superior Time Lord biology be damned. He was barely aware of taking the TARDIS into the vortex. What difference did it make, anyways? No matter where he went, he would never be able to outrun the truth. Rose Tyler was gone because of him.

Rose had been such a bright light in his life at a time when he’d given up on everything, and she’d taught him how to explore the universe again. She had saved him in so many different ways, and had stayed with him through his regeneration, and stayed even when he’d finally told her the truth of what he’d done to end the Time War. 

He’d always been aware of how fragile Rose’s human life was, so he’d been stupid enough to keep her at a distance even when he’d wanted nothing more than to pull her close and tell her how much he loved her. He’d known he would outlive her, but he never would have imagined that he would lose her so soon. What was a couple of years to a Time Lord? Nothing but a blink of the eye. And yet, despite knowing her so briefly, the Doctor knew that he would never be able to forget about Rose Tyler. He wouldn’t let himself.

,,,

Rose got home from work late, just as she had every day since she’d started working for Torchwood years ago. It turned out that the Torchwood of Pete’s world had no Yvonne Hartman, and was a much better place for it (Could she even call this universe Pete’s world anymore? It’s not like he was here. But what else would she call it? It certainly wasn’t hers). 

Her apartment was small and devoid of personal belongings. It’s not like she’d had time to pack a bag before falling. It wasn’t her home, it was just a place to sleep and eat, not that she was very successful at the former these days. Rose tossed her bag down onto the table, and then made herself a cup of tea before settling in to get some paperwork done. She’d found that the easiest way to sleep without nightmares was to completely exhaust herself first.

It was almost two in the morning before she finally stood up and moved to the bedroom, quickly stripping off her work clothes and hanging them up. Her rooms both on the TARDIS and in her home with her mum had been complete messes, but Rose didn’t have much of anything to make a mess with here, and she at least had enough dignity to not go to work with wrinkled clothing. 

Rose pulled back the blankets on her bed, and then paused to look at the only item on her bedside table. It was a big yellow button that looked like a different colored version of the ones sold in that one American store chain. She’d probably pressed it a million times since getting to this world, but it was never able to bring her back. It had been just enough to save her life, with her pressing it after just seconds spent in the void (or maybe it had been years. There had been no way of marking time there. All she knew was that it hadn’t been long enough for her to suffocate to death, no matter what it may have felt like), but it had brought her to the wrong side, which made it useless. 

Just as Rose closed her eyes, hoping to make it through the night without being haunted by her own memories, she heard her name called out in an achingly familiar voice. Her eyes snapped open and she looked around the room wildly, but the Doctor wasn’t there. Of course he wasn’t there. Why had she thought…? Had it just been a dream? Another way for her mind to torture her?

But no, because she was definitely awake now, and she heard it again. It was certainly the Doctor’s voice, the pinstripe Doctor, but his voice sounded utterly broken in a way that Rose had never heard before. It made her want to weep for him, and she probably would have if it weren’t for the fact that she hadn’t shed a single tear since her first day in this universe. 

Rose grabbed the yellow button and hit it a few times just in case, but it still did nothing, so she threw it across the room, letting it slam into the wall with an unsatisfying thunk. There was silence for a few long seconds, and then her phone rang. It took Rose a moment to realize why the noise sounded so foreign to her. It wasn’t the phone she used here in Pete’s world, it was her other one! The one that her first Doctor had messed around with as a gift to her.

She’d already tried using it to call the Doctor, and her mum, and any other sign of home that she could, but it hadn’t worked. Apparently parallel universes weren’t part of her coverage plan. She had still kept it fully charged for the first few months, just in case, but after that, she’d lost hope, and let it die. So how the hell was it ringing now?

Rose leapt out of bed and ran to the closet. Luckily, she had so few belongings that it was pretty easy to rummage around and find the phone, which was ringing insanely loudly. She didn’t recognize the number displayed on the screen, but she didn’t care. She hit the answer button before she could lose her chance, and held it up to her ear. “Hello? Doctor?” She knew that it was dangerous to let her hopes get up this high, but she couldn’t help it. The Doctor had always been the master of figuring out how to accomplish the impossible. So why should she start believing him about limits now?

,,,

The Doctor looked at his two younger selves with disdain, and wondered what he was doing here. Sure, he’d gone through a few embarrassing phases during his twelve-hundred and some odd years, but he couldn’t think of any two incarnations that he could possibly hate worse than the ones he was currently trapped in a prison cell with. The one who had won the Time War, and the one who had lost Rose Tyler. 

The Doctor’s usual coping methods involves not thinking about the things that made him miserable, and seeing his (relatively) younger faces just brought back all the memories that he always tried so hard to avoid. The Doctor did his best to ignore whatever mumbling was going on between the other two, though he did stiffen up when he heard the youngest of the three ask if they’d ever counted the children. He didn’t care if it angered his younger selves; he wasn’t going to just stand around and talk about all of that loss as if any of them had any right to be upset over it when it was their own fault.

Clara came to the rescue, which was nice of her, and they all went back to the Tower of London together, first in pinstripe’s TARDIS, and then through the Gallifrey Falls painting. Issues with the Zygons were wrapped up rather cleverly if the Doctor did say so himself (and he did, he’d heard it), and then Clara was insisting that they needed to go back and find the younger Doctor to help him. The Doctor insisted that the whole Time War was locked, and that there was no way they’d be able to get through, but he decided to humor Clara anyways.

He wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or not when he and his tenth self were both able to arrive on time. And then, clever boys that they were, they figured out how to save Gallifrey. How to undo the single biggest defining moment in the Doctor’s entire life. There was no way to make things perfect, but the Doctor could make them better. And wasn’t that always the job of a Doctor? To cure problems, to make things better?

He was so caught up in the elation of that moment, that he was barely aware of Clara pulling out her phone at some point, a weird look on her face. “Ah… Doctor?” All three of them turned to look at her curiously, and she held out the phone. “It’s for you.” The Doctor realized a moment later that that wasn’t her phone at all.

But before he could ask about it, the youngest present Doctor made a strange noise. “That’s mine! I dropped it on Gallifrey before I came here. How did you…” Then he trailed off, staring at something next to him that the other two Doctors couldn’t see. He nodded once in acceptance. “Ah, I see. I suppose the call isn’t for me, then. If you picked up, then it must be for your Doctor.”

Clara shrugged, and held the phone out to the Doctor, who quickly grabbed it and held it up to his ear. “This is the Doctor.” There was a long pause, and the Doctor pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment just to double check that the call was still going, and then raised it back up. “Hello? Are you still there?”

The silence stretched on for just another couple of seconds before a hesitant voice came through. “_Doctor? Is that really you?_” The Doctor suddenly felt like he was completely frozen in place at the sound of that beautiful voice that he thought he’d never hear again after visiting her right before regenerating. 

He coughed once, suddenly afflicted with a serious case of dry throat. “Rose?” he whispered. He ignored the way that both other Doctors immediately focused their attention on him. He could already see his tenth self itching to snatch the phone out of his hands, and he found himself clutching it even tighter. He cleared his throat, trying to figure out what to say. “Rose, how are… where are you… Rose?” he asked again, even though he’d recognize her voice anywhere, despite how long it had been since he’d last heard it.

“_You don’t sound like my Doctor,_” Rose said quietly. “_But you clearly know me. Have you regenerated again?_”

The Doctor blinked and nodded once. “Uh, yeah. You did always say that I was rubbish on my own, right?” Or maybe that had been Donna, but that didn’t really matter at the moment. There were far more important things to worry about. “Rose, where are you? When are you?”

“_I’m in Pete’s world, or whatever it’s appropriate to call it when there’s no Pete here anymore. Where else would I be?_” The Doctor thought that maybe it would be best not to answer that, considering that he’d spent hundreds of years believing she’d been brutally killed by the void. It was an indescribable relief to know that she’d survived and made it to the other side, though it also made him feel just as guilty as if she’d died, because there had been no one left for her there. “_Doctor? How long has it been for you since Canary Wharf?_”

The Doctor sighed, and knew that he couldn’t lie to Rose. He still wasn’t even sure how they were communicating at the moment, and if they were cut off any second, he didn’t want his last words to her to be falsehoods. “Four hundred years, give or take a few. It can be difficult to keep track of time in a time machine. What about you?”

Before she could answer, the phone was snatched away by the pinstripes Doctor, who shot him a quick glare before putting the call on speakerphone. “_It’s been a while. Sometimes it can be hard to keep track even without a time machine. But how did you even call me? Are you-_” she cut herself off, and the Doctor exchanged a pained look with his tenth self at the thought that she didn’t even believe in him enough to ask if he was going to rescue her. Not that he could, but even still. 

Clara finally spoke up, though she seemed pretty confused. It’s not like the Doctor had ever mentioned Rose, and now here he was, two of his selves acting like complete fools just to hear her talk. And the other Doctor had a strange look in his eyes that was more than just curiosity about his future. “Ah, we didn’t call you. You must’ve called here. The phone started ringing without me doing anything. And you even asked for the Doctor, so you must’ve known who you were calling.”

There was another long pause, and the Doctor almost wanted Rose to accuse him of replacing her, so that he’d be able to assure her that he could never possibly do such a thing. But she didn’t ask. The Doctor shuddered to think of what she’d been through since their separation that had forced her to grow up from the girl she’d once been. And deep down, he couldn’t really deny that it would almost be nice if she was jealous, since it would mean that she hadn’t found someone else in Pete’s world. But that was an incredibly selfish way for him to think. The most important thing should only be that she’d been able to find happiness, though the utter exhaustion in her voice seemed to prove that she hadn’t. “_I didn’t call you. Don’t you think I’ve tried to a million times over? I don’t even know why I still have this phone. I haven’t even charged it in ages. A dead phone starts ringing, of course I’m going to assume that the Doctor’s involved._” Then she sighed heavily, and it sounded like a rush of wind coming through the speaker. “_How’s my mum? And Mickey?_”

“Jackie is fine,” pinstripes finally spoke up, like he’d just found the courage to. “Her and Pete got married and had a son named Tony. Mickey’s fine too.” That was the extent of his tenth self’s knowledge, though. The rest wouldn’t be found out until that night of goodbyes that was still in his future. 

The Doctor added, “Mickey’s gotten married too. To a former companion of mine, Martha Jones. They’ve got two beautiful children.” But that was all he knew. The idea of checking in on Rose’s loved ones had always seemed too painful. And he knew that they could never forgive him for losing Rose. 

“_Doctor,_” Rose’s voice came out sounding like she was trying to hold back any loud sobs. “_I don’t know why we’re being allowed to talk to each other right now, but I’m so glad that we… wait a second. Are there two of you? Right now in the same room? Doesn’t that break some kind of rule of time? ‘Don’t touch the baby’ and all that?_”

Pinstripes managed a small laugh. “Special circumstances. You know how it is for us Time Lords, with our superior biology and all that.”

There was a faint rustling sound before Rose got out her response. “_I’ve missed you, my Doctor. And the new one better not be pouting!_”

“I promise I’m not,” the Doctor told her earnestly. There would always be time to pout later about how he had the habit of getting jealous of himself. Which was especially strange in this situation, when he’d previously hated his tenth incarnation. 

“Bad Wolf,” the youngest Doctor suddenly said. He’d mentioned it before, too, but things had been happening so quickly that the Doctor hadn’t really gotten the chance to think about it much. Both of the newer Doctors turned to look at their past self, eyes full of questions. Even Rose had gone silent, probably full of plenty of questions of her own. “She said that she took the form of Rose Tyler, someone from my future. Is that…?”

Pinstripes narrowed his eyes. “Hang on, ‘Bad Wolf said’? Are you saying that you’ve actually talked to a being called Bad Wolf?”

The younger Doctor nodded. “Yes. She showed me the future that I needed to see in order for us all to go back and change things. And she’s the one who showed visions of the war to us, in order to get your current companion to talk you down. Bad Wolf is as responsible for saving Gallifrey as any of us are.”

And then there was a bright golden light, so blinding that everyone had to squeeze their eyes shut until it faded away. When the Doctor opened his eyes again, he found himself gaping in shock at the figure that had just seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Despite the strange choice in clothing, there was no doubt that it was Rose Tyler. Or was it? He grabbed the phone back to hold up to his ear. “Rose?”

“_Doctor? What’s going on?_” Her voice came clearly through the speaker, while the newly appeared figure’s mouth remained shut. 

The woman’s eyes flashed gold for a moment, and then the Doctor understood. That was Bad Wolf. “How is any of this possible?”

Bad Wolf smiled, and if the Doctor didn’t know better, he’d say that she was looking at him fondly. “The sound of the TARDIS brings hope to even you, Doctor. But who brings the TARDIS?” She walked closer to the trio of Doctors, grinning that tongue-touched grin that looked so right on her face, even if she wasn’t actually Rose. “Didn’t you ever wonder about what I am, Doctor? I was created when Rose Tyler looked into the heart of the TARDIS. I am Bad Wolf, and I created myself, and I have always been and will always be both Rose and the TARDIS. Well, not really, but if it helps to think of it that way.”

The Doctor couldn’t help smiling at hearing her sound so similar to the way that he often did in his current regeneration. “So you’re saying that you’re Rose, even now?”

Bad Wolf shrugged. “Yes. No. Does it matter? I know that I’m not the one who you’ve been waiting for all this time.” She gave pinstripes an apologetic look. “I’m afraid that she can only go with one of you. But take heart in the fact that this means you have seen her again someday. Or you will, I mean.” Then she looked back at the Doctor, and spoke before he needed to ask her to explain. “When you took the vortex from Rose, you unmade me. This is the only moment I went to, so this is the only moment I could ever be in. Which means that this is the only moment where there is a solid bridge between Rose and the TARDIS, since I am both, and neither, and something in between. I can bring her back, my Doctor. You have both changed so much, but if you wish-”

“_Do it,_” came Rose’s voice through the phone, full of certainty. The Doctor couldn’t believe he’d forgotten that the phone was on speaker, which meant that Rose could hear everything that was going on. “_If you’re even a little bit me, then you know that I would give anything to be there again, to be with him again._”

One of Bad Wolf’s eyebrows quirked up. “You know that you won’t be able to go with the Doctor you remember, right? And the personal timelines are far too tangled for you to go back and permanently reside with the Tylers on Earth in the 21st century.”

“_I’m sure. I know I never got the chance to say it, but I-_”

“I know,” Bad Wolf interrupted. “Of course I know. And he should hear it from you while you stand before him, not from a different universe. Alright, then it is time for Rose Tyler to finally return home. And the moment she does, I will return to a different moment in time, so that I can save you again, my Doctor.” She let out a small laugh before reaching up to lightly touch the Doctor’s cheek. “It seems as though I am always saving you. But I don’t mind. I created myself for that purpose, afterall.” Then her eyes flared a bright gold, and the Doctor had to close his eyes, even though he didn’t want to look away for even a second, afraid that she would disappear entirely, or worse, that this would all turn out to have been nothing but a dream.

,,,

Between one blink and the next, Rose found that she was definitely not in her apartment anymore. She was standing in what looked like a dusty little shack. She glanced down, and saw that she was no longer wearing her pajamas. Instead, she was wearing the strangest combination of things, all of which were torn and dusty. Ripped leggings, a strangely shaped tan skirt, an old white top, an assortment of bracelets, and… arm warmers? She could also feel her hair brushing against her shoulders, and reached up to assess it. Definitely longer than it had been a few moments ago, and full of weird braids and knots. 

She didn’t have any time to continue her investigation, though, because she was suddenly aware of the fact that she wasn’t alone. She looked up, and saw her Doctor in front of her, as well as three strangers. There was a pretty young woman, and Rose assumed that she was the one who’d answered the phone. The other two men weren’t ones that Rose recognized exactly, but when she stepped closely enough to see their eyes, she knew exactly who they were. They were all the Doctor. “Doctor!”

Her pinstripes Doctor was the one who rushed forward quickest, and crushed her to his chest in a tight hug. He pressed his face into her hair, and Rose eagerly returned the hug. It had been so long since the last time she’d been hugged. It took her a moment to realize what he was mumbling. “I’m so sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry. I should have tried harder, I should have known that you were still alive, I should have looked harder. I’m so sorry. I’m so-”

Rose cut him off when she stood on her tiptoes to give him a light kiss, and then settled flat on her feet again. She knew that it wouldn’t matter if she said she didn’t blame him, because he would just blame himself anyways. He was always taking on all the burdens of guilt that weren’t his to bear. “Doctor, I forgive you,” she whispered. Then she cleared her throat, determined to say the words that Bad Wolf had stopped her from saying over the phone. “I love you.”

“Quite right, too,” the Doctor choked out, before leaning down to give her a long, passionate kiss. When he finally pulled away, he continued looking down at her, like she was the most important thing in the world. “Rose Tyler… I love you more than all the words in the universe could ever possibly say.”

The younger looking Doctor, who was wearing suspenders and a bowtie of all things? cleared his throat, looking awkward. “Oi, sandshoes, Bad Wolf said-”

“I know!” the Doctor snapped, still not looking away from Rose. “Just give me another minute. Please.” 

The young woman spoke up. “We’re all heading back to the museum now anyways, right? So why don’t you take Rose back there?”

The Doctor seemed to light up at the idea, but his counterpart shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t trust him- myself- enough to think that he won’t just whisk Rose away as soon as he’s got the chance.”

Rose frowned. “Why can’t I stay with you?”

The other Doctor was the one who answered, the one who looked so old, but was wearing a familiar leather jacket. “Because you aren’t already with the older regeneration. Means you couldn’t have gone back with a younger version.”

Rose gulped. “Oh.” Bad Wolf had already said that she’d have to deal with the fact that the Doctor had changed, and she did accept that, but that didn’t make it any easier to let go of the man wearing the face that she recognized and loved so much. They shared another kiss before she let the bowtie Doctor lead her back to his TARDIS. She looked around in surprise once they were inside. “You changed it? I didn’t know you could do that.” She reached out to touch the console, and knew immediately that it was still the same TARDIS, despite the different appearance. 

The new new Doctor shrugged. “Thought it was time for a bit of a change up. Do you like it?” He sounded so uncertain, and it was strange to hear such a thing from the Doctor.

She really had no choice but to smile at him, because she wanted him to smile in return. “It’s different.”

“Good different, or bad different?” he asked in a repeat of a conversation that had been so long ago for both of them.

“Just different,” Rose answered, and the Doctor grinned at her. Then he started moving, dancing around the TARDIS to get her into flight, and Rose knew without a doubt that he was still her Doctor, no matter what he looked like on the outside now. 

It felt like almost too soon before they landed again, and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS before the Doctor or his companion could stop her (she’d definitely need to learn the other girl’s name at some point soon, but right now she had other priorities). The younger two Doctors were already waiting, and Rose pulled pinstripes in for another kiss before walking over to the youngest and giving him a quick hug. “I guess you’ll meet me someday?”

“I look forward to it,” he promised. And Rose could feel the truth in his words. Even though this man knew basically nothing about her at all, he trusted that he would enjoy meeting her, because he’d seen how much his older selves liked her. It was a rather effective ego boost, on top of Rose still riding high on the Doctor’s returned confession to her. It was only the thought that he still needed to meet her that let Rose let go of him. Otherwise she might have clung to him forever, because she knew what it felt like to be alone, and she never wanted her Doctor to suffer through that, even if he technically already had.

,,,

The Doctor watched his leather-clad self leave, and then turned to pinstripes. He could see the pain filling the younger Time Lord’s eyes, and the Doctor didn’t envy him. And realized that he didn’t hate him either. “You won’t remember any of this anyways. So you won’t be constantly focused on nothing but finding her again.”

“And it’s better to go back to thinking that she died in the void?” There was so much anguish in his voice. 

The Doctor sighed. “No. I don’t know. Look, I know that you won’t be able to remember any of these events, but if you do nothing else, please try to at least remember that feeling of hope. No matter what you go through in between, you’re going to see Rose Tyler again, I promise.” 

Rose and pinstripes exchanged one last long hug, and then he hurried off, clearly having trouble even tearing his eyes away from her for long enough to close the doors. Not that the Doctor could blame himself for that. Even in Bad Wolf’s clothes, Rose looked absolutely stunning. She walked over to him, and he was relieved to see that she didn’t look wary the way she had when she’d had to deal with his previous regeneration. Though in her defense, that had happened without any warning to her. “So, you got room in that box for one more?”

The Doctor grinned, and held out one hand. “Why? You headed my way, doll?”

It seemed like that callback to a past adventure was just the thing he’d needed. Rose’s smile was truly one of the most beautiful sights in the entire universe. “Is there any other way to go?” Then she took his hand, and the Doctor could feel how perfectly they fit together. It was like each body of his had been made for the sole purpose of being able to Rose Tyler’s hand, and he couldn’t think of anything that could possibly be better. 

The Doctor led Rose back onto the TARDIS, and it felt almost like the entire universe heaved out a giant sigh of relief now that everybody was back exactly where they were supposed to be.


End file.
